The National Green Highways Mission got underway with Union road transport and highways minister NitinGadkari kick-starting the initial plantation drive along 1,500km of national highways at a cost of about Rs.300 crore.
The vision of the policy is “to develop eco-friendly National Highways with the participation of the community, farmers, NGOs, private sector, institutions, government agencies and the Forest Department for economic growth and development in a sustainable manner.
MISSION AIMS
The mission aims to provide a green canopy along 100,000km of highways and create jobs for 1 million youth.
The aim is to help the environment, help local communities, and generate employment,to local people and communities, by planting trees along all the highways in the country.
To plant fruit-bearing trees specific to region, for instance Alphonso in Konkan, tamarind in Chhattisgarh
The aim is to make India pollution free. It will also help in curtailing the number of road accidents in India;providing shade on glaring hot roads during summer, and soil erosion, preventing the glare from the headlights of incoming vehicles.
To help in achieving the country’s forest cover target of 33 per cent of the country’s land area. Currently, only 22 per cent is covered by forests.
UNDER THE MISSION
The government has made it mandatory to set aside 1% of the total project cost of any national highway contract to a Green Fund for plantation.
There will be a strong monitoring mechanism in place by using ISRO’s Bhuvan and GAGAN satellite systems. Every planted tree will be counted and auditing will be done.
The mission will be linked with the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) to boost the rural economy.